The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 eBook

“Panchachuda said, ’Even if high-born
and endued with beauty and possessed of protectors,
women wish to transgress the restraints assigned to
them. This fault truly stains them, O Narada!
There is nothing else that is more sinful than women.
Verily, women, are the root of all faults. That
is, certainly known to thee, O Narada! Women,
even when possessed of husbands having fame and wealth,
of handsome features and completely obedient to them,
are prepared to disregard them if they get the opportunity.
This, O puissant one, is a sinful disposition with
us women that, casting off modesty, we cultivate the
companionship of men of sinful habits and intentions.
Women betray a liking for those men who court them,
who approach their presence, and who respectfully serve
them to even a slight extent. Through want of
solicitation by persons of the other sex, or fear
of relatives, women, who are naturally impatient of
all restraints, do not transgress those that have been
ordained for them, and remain by the side of their
husbands. There is none whom they are incapable
of admitting to their favours. They never take
into consideration the age of the person they are
prepared to favour. Ugly or handsome, if only
the person happens to belong to the opposite sex, women
are ready to enjoy his companionship. That women
remain faithful to their lords is due not to their
fear of sin, nor to compassion, nor to wealth, nor
to the affection that springs up in their hearts for
kinsmen and children. Women living in the bosom
of respectable families envy the condition of those
members of their sex that are young and well-adorned
with jewels and gems and that lead a free life.
Even those women that are loved by their husbands
and treated with great respect, are seen to bestow
their favours upon men that are hump-backed, that are
blind, that are idiots, or that are dwarfs. Women
may be seen to like the companionship of even those
men that are destitute of the power of locomotion
or those men that are endued with great ugliness of
features. O great Rishi, there is no man in this
world whom women may regard as unfit for companionship.
Through inability to obtain persons of the opposite
sex, or fear of relatives, or fear of death and imprisonment,
women remain, of themselves, within the restraints
prescribed for them. They are exceedingly restless,
for they always hanker after new companions.
In consequence of their nature being unintelligible,
they are incapable of being kept in obedience by affectionate
treatment. Their disposition is such that they
are incapable of being restrained when bent upon transgression.
Verily, women are like the words uttered by the wise.[271]
Fire is never satiated with fuel. Ocean can never
be filled with the waters that rivers bring unto him.
The Destroyer is never satiated with slaying even
all living creatures. Similarly, women are never
satiated with men. This, O celestial Rishi. is
another mystery connected with women. As soon